Labels

Thursday, January 16, 2014

After our Thanksgiving break, we did get another three weeks of school done. We enjoyed a full week off for Christmas because Bass also had off from work. Then right back to it after New Year's Day. It definitely took some effort to stay focused but we pushed through.

Here's what we did over those weeks:

Things that were scheduled:

Math

Soprano is up to Investigation 6 in Saxon and Life of Fred Apples Chapter 11.

Tenor is on lesson 87 in his Saxon.

Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)

Tenor got a break with writing during our split week (before Cmas and after New's Year) because we only did the basics, not MFW.

Electives:

Typing, Spanish, Geography, and PA History for both.

Somehow 'typing' wasn't getting put on Soprano's schedule. I think I had deleted it one week in her logs and then forgot to put it back in. I caught it so she now has typing in her schedule again.

Tenor learned 3 more Greek letters. Soprano had Home Ec
where she was supposed to bake and cook a beef pie for dinner. Well, I didn't have bisquick or all of the right ingredients so we made a version with cornbread as the topping. Soprano did a great job putting it together but it was really one of the most disgusting meals I have eaten. It's a good thing Tenor is at the point of life where he is sucking down food like a Hoover. I think he ate most of the left-overs.

My Father's World Rome to the Reformation-

With Christmas break, we only did 2 weeks of MFW even though we completed 3 weeks of the basics. We continued talking about the Arab world, Charlemagne, and then the early Anglo-Saxons.

Bible: We spent time praying
specifically for Muslims around the world like we did during our last week of MFW. We continued reading through Luke and studying the life of Jesus. We also got out Trial and Triumph again reading abut Charlemagne, Patrick, and Pope Gregory I. The younglings love this book which is great because it's a lot of words and few pictures.

It's been interesting to read about the start of the Catholic Church and how different it was at its origin compared to what it is today.

Science: For weeks 17 and 18,
we did several lessons and took a quiz from the AIG Human Body book. We learned about
the lungs, the skin, and fingerprints. Bass did the assigned lung experiments with the younglings. They were similar to what we had done last year in CTG so when they failed this time, it wasn't a big disappointment. We examined our skin under a magnifying glass, using lotion on a portion to compare to an unmoisturized section. We also had a lot of fun collecting our fingerprints and making 'evidence' cards. The cards were used to help the younglings identify the perpetrator of various crimes. (Ex. Someone ate all the cookies out of the cookie jar and we found this fingerprint.) Poor Soprano's print was the most oft pulled from the stack as the culprit.

My fingerprints 'on file'

One of the fingerprints found at the scene of the crime

We did a little more 'forensic' work. We made up some fake blood and dropped it from various heights, noting how big the splatters were. It felt very CSI.

History:We touched on the expansion of Islam just a little bit before we moved on to the Franks (modern day France) with their leader, Clovis then their King, Charlemagne. Due to Charlemagne's influence, Christianity was introduced to England. We read about the British Isles in the Early Middle Ages: how the Celtic tribes lived, the Saxon-Angle invasion, and then Augustine's ministry.

Tenor's "Book of Kells" illustration

This year, I'm also incorporating Story of the World Volume 1 as well as
Mystery of History Volume 1 and 2.

For week 16, I used Mystery of History 2 p118-121 on Day 2 instead of Streams of Civ..

For week 17, I eliminated Streams of
Civilization on Day 1 and added MOH 2 p207-210.

Other MFW:

Music: We listened to a few more Mozart pieces and kept up
with listening at lunch most days. They also colored a page about the clarinet.

Tenor added a mustache on this and told me, "They say he looks just like his dad." lol

Art: We did a few lessons on painting with different tones and with harmony and started talking about illuminated manuscripts.